However, the 1977 animated Hobbit, firmly took the world of Middle-earth and made the adventure for children. Before this, in 1951, Tolkien had revised The Hobbit, to make it more closely aligned with the spirit of The Lord of the Rings, making the slightly more childish version of the book a historical memory.īilbo Baggins (Orson Bean) and Gollum (Theodore Isidore Gottlieb) in 'The Hobbit.' Rankin/Bass Of course, even by 1977, The Hobbit had been retroactively relegated to “prequel” status, making it something of an underdog next to the sprawling, and mega-popular Lord of the Rings trilogy of novels, which had been published, originally from 1954 to 1955. Tolkien’s 1937 children’s novel The Hobbit. And, as this version of The Hobbit celebrates its 45th birthday, the movie has never been better.Ĭlocking at just 77 minutes (and apparently, not an hour and a half as many remember it), the animated version of The Hobbit from Rankin and Bass captures the breezy and jaunty quality of J.R.R. As the world mourns the passing of animator and producer Jules Bass - who died on October 25, 2022, at the age of 87 - it’s also a good time to celebrate his work. 45 years later, the impact of the animated Hobbit cannot be overstated. version of The Hobbit quietly pushed the most famous fantasy origin story of all into the mainstream. Although the original Star Warsblew everyone’s minds that summer and forever altered the way we think about blockbuster movies, the Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. kids watching network TV were introduced to the “greatest adventure” of all time.

The hobbit book trilogy